


Only in Dreams

by sloppy



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Friendship/Love, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-18
Updated: 2018-05-18
Packaged: 2019-05-08 17:08:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14698626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sloppy/pseuds/sloppy
Summary: A day on Whale Island, gratuitous and fanciful.





	Only in Dreams

**Author's Note:**

> Reworked and reposted from a 2016 fic. They make me cry.

The red fruit bled clear, rich juice that left Killua’s fingers tacky and lips dewy. 

Gon had climbed a towering tree with ease, plucked two straight from the outstretching branches, and thrown one into the air for Killua to catch below. The impact immediately caused brown bruises to bloom underneath his fingers.

They rested under the shade of the same leafy palm, letting the breeze fill their lungs and their bare toes dig the earth beneath the cool grass.

“Your aunt will get mad,” Killua warned, just as Gon stood to grab another fruit. He did more so out of finding words for conversation rather than worry. “You’ll spoil your dinner.”

In response, Gon only wiped his sticky hands against his shorts and grinned widely. “Auntie’s cooking is so good, I have another stomach just for it!”

Killua watched him until he was fully obscured by the foliage. He counted to ten, then looked up when his friend didn’t come down right away. All he saw was green and branches; he was much smaller than much of the trees growing at the base of the archipelago mountains.

The words fell down quick like rainfall: “Killua! Come up!”

He counted to six, and Killua was already there beside Gon at the top of the tree, readying for impending danger. But there was only Gon, tranquil as ever, a finger pointed at the distance.

On Whale Island, time stood still. They could live there a hundred years and every sunrise would be as pink and gleaming as the one before. There, at the edge of the sightline, was a thin line of blue outstretched to the ends of the world. The ports picked up where the ocean kissed the sand, built sturdily with the same trees of their mountains by the locals’ ancestors. Like ants, people marched in lines by the dock or scattered madly in the markets, and Killua was struck with the thought that, maybe, one of them could upturn their heads just a little and see them, too: two ants on a broccoli. 

From where they perched they could also see the waterfalls, and just remembering made Killua feel the warm water rushing over his skin after the dive from the cliff, like he had just been baptized and reborn anew. Gon had taken the lead and ran straight for the lake, reckless in his comfort. And because he did not take off his clothes or stop to calculate the height of the fall, neither did Killua. 

“I wish I could stay.”

Killua had meant to say, _It’s beautiful_. Here was something much brighter than the sunshine reflecting off the water, something that banished all the shadows in every corner of his heart. He felt light.

“Then stay,” Gon said, offering something other than fruit. “Let’s stay.”


End file.
